Goody Goody

When I'm depressed, I tend to do things I normally wouldn't do. I signed up for the IM Kona lottery in a post Ironman funk. I wrote a sob story letter trying to win our family a furnace this past winter when I was really depressed (we won a food basket!) And this early spring when I was just coming out of a period of deep anxiety, I applied for a sponsorship with Goody.

I was quite surprised to find that I had been chosen. You see, I'm not a great athlete. In fact for the first year that my coach called me athlete I secretly called him a liar. Me an athlete? Ha. Ha. Ha. I imagined the Goody people reading my application and falling off their chairs with laughter. But for some reason they saw something they liked and so now I am wearing the Goody colors this racing season.

The interesting thing about this is how it changed my approach to training. Once I became a sponsored athlete, I started acting like one. I started working out regularly. I started watching what I ate (most of the time!). I started taking better care of my body by adding strength and flexibility training to my workouts. There was something about knowing that I was worthy to be sponsored that made me want to live worthy of this.

As I've reflected on the changes made by the Goody sponsorship, I realized that there could be many parallels to my spiritual life. God has already declared me his child. He loves me as my Father. He has shown me grace when I didn't even want it. He had come down from heaven and offered me a life beyond my imagination. But so often I don't believe this. I don't live like a child of God. I don't reflect the things that he values and loves. The more I think about this, the more I think that I need to think more about the relationship that God desires to have with me as a means to changing my behavior. Believe me, if a person could become who they want to be by sheer determination and works alone, I'd be doing it. I've tried over and over again, not to earn my salvation, but to earn God's approval. And yet, I ALREADY HAVE IT. If I could just live in the realization of those words. That's the place that I want to dwell.